I’ve long believed that 10% of the flies catch 90% of the fish. One of those go-to flies is the Hare’s Ear nymph.

Pair that with a Pheasant Tail or Zebra Midge, and you should be good to go in most situations on freestone rivers (I think tailwaters, like the Swift, are a different story).

I’ve seen quite a few Hare’s Ear recipes, and I suspect they all work. One I particularly like uses a resin. You put on the “thick” version, as the above video shows, and it looks like an air bubble. It also seals the wing case and thread collar on the fly.

The Loon UV resins are magic. They offer three types of viscosity: flow, thin, and thick, and I use all three, depending on the fly I’m making. They give a subtle glow to the flies, and I think they really make the fly last longer.